Labor has pledged a $300 million support package for Basin communities set to be impacted by voluntary water buybacks under a revamped Murray-Darling Basin Plan proposing to restore 450 gigalitres of water to Australia's largest and most important river system over the next three years.
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Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek said the package was constructed after considering the potential impacts of water recovery disclosed in local community feedback, state and territory government input, the repercussions of previous water recovery programs and research.
"We understand there may be social and economic impacts of recovering water," she said in a statement.
"That's why we're providing a ... support package for Basin communities before water recovery impacts are felt, supporting jobs and economies. It will ensure regional communities are as strong as possible as the Basin Plan is rolled out in full."
The government's Voluntary Water Purchase Program is scheduled to become operational later this year and will signal the start of the Commonwealth purchasing water entitlements from willing sellers.
Proposed investments will include capital to startup or expand less water dependent industries in regional communities, along with new community infrastructure projects and employment and community support services.
However, Shadow Water Minister Perin Davey was critical that details of the package were not disclosed last week in Senate Estimates, a forum designed to pull apart the merits of government expenditure.
She also said taxpayers were being left "in the dark" on the actual cost of delivering the MDBP after details of the buyback program were marked 'not for publication'.
In pointing to an ABARES report released on Tuesday investigating the cost of buybacks on agricultural production, Senator Davey said: "what we do know... is that even a small amount of buybacks will see water allocation prices increase and irrigated agricultural production decrease".
"In fact, purchasing even half the water targeted is likely to cost the economy $111m per year in lost income and push water allocation prices up by 10 per cent - meaning it will cost farmers more to produce the food we eat," she said.
Nationals MP for Mallee Anne Webster said, according to the ABARES data, "Sunraysia faces an approximate $20m annual economic hit so Labor can hang on to the seat of Boothby in metropolitan Adelaide."
The ABARES report however gave few clues as to what the ultimate cost of voluntary buybacks might be as it only modelled indicative impacts of historical data at a point in time, rather than change over time.
It also said an index created to help guide lawmakers in decisions around buybacks "could be developed further by including water recovery scenarios to represent how a community's vulnerability may change under different circumstances".
ACM-Agri has previously reported that more than $610 million will be spent in the coming financial year on a mix of voluntary water buybacks, water-saving infrastructure and constraints under the MDBP.
According to a table in Budget Paper 4, $613.4m will be drawn down from the Water for the Environment Special Account during 2024-25, leaving $872m in the bank.
It will be used among other things to help meet the government's 2024-25 target of returning 100GL of environmental flows.
In February, Ms Plibersek revealed that farmers, irrigators and water traders were to receive around $205 million for 26.35GL per year of Basin water entitlements.
The majority of those purchases will be diverted into the southern basin and, while they did not contribute to the outstanding amount of water needed under the MDBP, they nevertheless provide some guide to the current market.
However, the amount paid for each individual transaction is dependant on several factors, including the relative reliability of the water.
The government said at the time that the number of license holders wanting to sell Basin water entitlements in that round far exceeded what was needed to hit target volumes in some catchments.
Ms Plibersek said the Sustainable Communities Program delivered on Labor's election commitment to deliver the MDBP and that the recovery of 450GL would help restore native wetlands and riverbanks, better connect our rivers and avoid critical species loss.
Meanwhile, it was also revealed last week in Senate Estimates that the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water used a computer-generated image of dead trees and fish in a bleak futuristic landscape as part of a $12m advertising campaign launched to sell its revised MDBP.
